1. Field of the Invention
The present invention deals with the field of devices which address the unique problems of launch and recovery of sea-based remotely piloted vehicle systems. Such systems preferably are reusable and must be capable of capturing the air vehicle in a safe manner to prevent danage to the vehicle itself or to the valuable payloads carried thereon without endangering the ship or its crew. Also minimum reconditioning of the capturing apparatus as well as the captured air vehicles between capturing activities is desirable.
Since landing is a very difficult maneuver to perform with an aircraft in a remote manner, the chances of damage to a pilotless air vehicle are quite great. Therefore, the present invention provides a means to automatically capture these vehicles without necessarily requiring a remotely controlled landing. This apparatus is also usable aboard a ship and preferably aboard a surface vessel of any configuration but which is indeed traveling into the wind.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Examples of prior art configurations generally usable to achieve these purposes include U.S. Pat. No. 1,128,072 for a Landing and Transfer Net for Use at Sea patented Feb. 9, 1915 to J. A. Steinmetz; U.S. Pat. No. 1,164,967 for an Aeroplane Alighting and Launching Apparatus patented Dec. 21, 1915 to J. M. Thorp; U.S. Pat. No. 1,712,164 for an Antiaircraft Screen patented May 7, 1929 to J. Peppin; U.S. Pat. No. 2,285,789 for an Airplane Trap patented June 9, 1942 to A. W. Woolley; U.S. Pat. No. 2,365,778 for a Mobile Device for Repelling the Attack of Enemy Aircraft patented Dec. 26, 1944 to M. S. Schwab; U.S. Pat. No. 2,378,563 for a Protecting Apparatus patented June 19, 1945 to A. J. Lakatos, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,389,880 for a Parachute System for Mid-Air Load Recovery patented June 25, 1968 to O. B. Ferguson; U.S. Pat. No. 3,980,250 for Aircraft Recovery Methods patented Sept. 14, 1976 to Greenhalgh et al; U.S. Pat. No. 4,147,317 for a Mobile RPV Landing Deck patented Apr. 3, 1979 to Mayhew et al; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,290 for an Arrestment System patented Jan. 19, 1982 to Kenneth T. Koper.
The traditional approach of recovery would be a parasitic recovery system on board the air vehicle. However, this would be detrimental to the payload carrying ability of the vehicle and would decrease the speed, range and endurance thereof. The activities of the air vehicle itself would thereby be compromised and made significantly more expensive. An alternative approach would be descent directly into the sea but this would endanger the lives of the recovery crews as well as introducing the possibility of damaging the equipment, the air vehicle or the retrieval vessel. Also such activities are known to be particularly difficult at night or during inclement weather or under time pressure situations.